Frechic Austin's grassroots outreach to single parents offers a smart balance of empathy and tough love.

Frechic Austin is photographed standing inside the Women's Center at Lakeland Community College, where she works.Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer

My column, which turns one year old this week, is built for responses.

I promised when I first took ownership of this space that I'd introduce you to some efforts, organizations and people trying to solve Cleveland's problems, and then see what happens. I've written about dozens of interesting things going on locally that readers can get behind, support or use to inspire their own efforts.

Occasionally all I hear is crickets, but usually I can count on at least a few readers to take action.

And last Sunday, I must have hit some sort of nerve when I profiled Frechic Austin, 28, who inventively uses Twitter to promote her support group for single parents, From Lemons to Lemonade.

"Margaret, it was overwhelming," says Austin. A couple dozen callers have registered for her "Secrets of A Successful Student-Parent" event she's having March 7, and she hasn't even started publicizing it yet.

One daycare provider promised to hand out flyers to the mothers dropping off kids at her home.

I'm guessing that her activism and her no-nonsense emphasis on personal responsibility are what went over so well. I like that too; that's what I thought made Austin so worthy of a column. Her grassroots outreach to single parents offers a smart balance of empathy and tough love-- and I'm convinced that the two must be packaged together if we're ever going to stem the disturbing trend of children having children.

Austin, a Painesville mother of three, is finishing out her final semester at Lakeland Community College, and it's quite possible the column could lead her to job opportunities.

Cuyahoga County's Bright Beginnings program already emailed to see if she could train them to use social media to target young moms. The agency has received a grant from a foundation to launch a stress-reduction program for single mothers with infants, to be called Positively Moms.

"We're going to set up a meeting with her," says Tom Wetzel, Bright Beginnings coordinator. "A lot of our mothers are younger and much more tuned into Facebook and Twitter and all those things."

Another reader who reached out was Mildred Brown, a local grandmother who says she's been frustrated that she hasn't been able to interest church friends in starting a group for young mothers.

"Wow," she thought when she read the column. "This might be perfect."

Brown thanked me for the story, in an email decorated with a graphic of a person on top of a mountain extending a hand to a person on their way up. "Sometimes young people view older people as the enemy. We're not, we're just trying to have an opportunity to pass on some of this profound wisdom we're walking around with," she said, laughing.

She said it's been tough to be a bystander as she watched so many young women become moms who seem unprepared for the responsibility. Yet it's such a touchy subject – young people don't want to sit around and be lectured. Who does?

Reading about From Lemons to Lemonade made her feel some hope. Brown, who plans to attend an upcoming meeting of the support group, says it opens the door to a healthy dialogue. "This might be the spark that will get us going."

These are the kinds of responses Austin's been receiving since Sunday. It's been quite a week.

She stayed so busy managing all the calls, Tweets and emails that she hadn't had a chance to really process the meaning of it all when her school, Lakeland Community College, sent over a videographer last week to do an interview with her.

"This article, your nonprofit, the fact that you're graduating this semester – what do you think all this means to your children?" he asked.

She had to turn away from the camera to wipe away her tears, remembering how her kids beamed with pride when they saw her picture in the paper.

This twice-weekly column is my grand experiment in the power of in-print encouragement. I'm happy to spotlight the do-ers in this community, the people who see a problem and don't turn away.

More power to all of them.

To register for the free program, "Secrets of a Successful Student-Parent," to be held March 7 at Lakeland Community College, call 440-525-7322. Child care is available.

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